AS their road to Wembley hit a dead-end Street – or the end of the Lin – Newcastle could only hope to have cleared a little more of their path to the Premier League.

There were echoes of Trelford Mills as linesman Duncan Street and referee James Linington ensured lifelong notoriety on Tyneside with a matchwinning display for the hosts.

Not since the bearded Mills has one match official, let alone a pair of them, played such a key role in the Magpies’ cup demise.

It wasn’t just that the deadly duo denied Newcastle two penalties, awarded two spot kicks to West Brom and reduced United to 10 men.

It was that so many of those key decisions were intertwined – and therefore decisive – in a match which could so easily have gone the other way.

As it was, other than Andy Carroll’s impressive double, the only consolation to be drawn from a first defeat in three months is the avoidance of any undue fixture congestion at the business end of the Championship season. But such reflection will have to wait until the anger at the rank inconsistency of yesterday’s man in the middle – and his assistant – has subsided.

Having adjudged, with remarkable confidence, that Jonas Olsson’s 17th-minute header had crossed the line, Mr Street then awarded the penalty from which Graham Dorrans doubled Albion’s lead just past the half-hour.

And then, as Newcastle did their best to make a game of it after the break, Linington did his worst.

The veteran of just five Championship games somehow saw fit not to punish Dorrans with a penalty for a blatant push on Ryan Taylor.

Then, after Carroll had volleyed United back into the game, Linington denied Shola Ameobi a spot kick.

Moments later, the referee – rightly – punished the hapless Taylor for bringing Jerome Thomas to ground in the United box. But only while ignoring that Ameobi lay injured upfield.

There were no such complaints - other than to Lady Luck - as Thomas settled the tie with a fourth goal and Carroll scored a solo consolation in added time.

But the sense of rough justice remained.

The afternoon had begun in upbeat mood, despite Newcastle – through choice or necessity – shuffling their pack while Albion retained the starting XI which posed such problems at St James’ Park.

For it was the visitors who were quickest into their stride, with Kevin Nolan a defender’s boot away from being sent clean through by Jose Enrique and Jonas Gutierrez showing up well down the left flank.

From one searching cross by Gutierrez, a soaring Carroll headed high and wide.

But it twice needed safe hands from Tim Krul to deny Marek Cech from distance, and then Roman Bednar fired over as the Baggies began to ask questions. And when Olsson trotted forward for the first time, United – as on Monday – had no answer.

Having sloppily conceded a right-wing corner, Newcastle were caught ball watching – again – as Chris Brunt’s delivery was met unchallenged by Olsson.

And although Enrique kept the ball from hitting the net, he was ruled by Mr Street to have failed to prevent it crossing the line.

Half-hearted appeals to the linesman hardly hinted at a team hard done by.

But the man with the flag would not be let off the hook second time around.

Just before the half-hour, Kadar checked Bednar just firmly enough for the Czech to take a tumble.

It probably was a penalty, but how the linesman could see that better than a well-placed, but impassive referee, is anyone’s guess.

The protests, and the booking for Kadar which followed, went on for two minutes, but did not distract Dorrans from the task of stroking home the penalty to Krul’s left.

If Newcastle claimed a miscarriage of justice, the rest of the half was an abortion.

The visitors managed their indignation just about well enough to avoid further entries into Linington’s black book, and Gutierrez and the admirable Enrique still tried to build down the left. But United offered painfully little down the right, where Fabrice Pancrate was as pitiful as Taylor – in for Danny Simpson – was uncomfortable.

And it was a mystery how neither Bednar nor Brunt managed to touch home Dorrans’ cross from that flank.

A second-half revival far more miraculous than that United produced here in August was required.

The substitute quickly forced Scott Carson into his first save of the game, with a raking 20-yard shot turned behind.

And better should have followed, but for referee Linington.

Having found space just inside the box, Taylor was barged into by Dorrans from behind, only to be ignored by the referee.

Credit to Carroll that United did not have long to look back in anger.

This time, at the end of a lung-bursting run down the left, Gutierrez found Carroll . . . and was rewarded with a right-foot volley which fairly flashed past Carson.

Game on, or so we thought. For Linington had other ideas . . .

Midway through the half, Ameobi wriggled free of Gabriel Tamas, only to tumble under the challenge of both him and Olsson. With the goal at his mercy, there had been no call for Ameobi to go to ground.

Penalty, red card, Albion down to 10 men, and – hopefully – 2-2 . . .

But the referee, with a pitifully theatrical gesture, argued otherwise.

And, as Ameobi lay stricken, fate added further insult to injury, with Thomas’s pace taking him beyond Taylor and drawing a blatant foul.

Linington pointed to the spot, sending United into fresh apoplexy, before taking two minutes to calm tempers and issue Taylor his marching orders.

Dorrans – same penalty, same outcome – did the rest.

Thomas’s goal merely twisted the knife, the winger getting lucky as the ball broke to him at the far post off Enrique’s challenge on Bednar.

Smith was then booked, Guttierez got into a row with a home fan, and Enrique also saw yellow as anarchy seemingly beckoned.

But Newcastle at least had the final word.

Carroll, having skipped past a challenge, poked the ball home from 15 yards to restore a measure of Magpie pride.

That fury, however, will linger.

THE MOMENT

The decision to deny Shola Ameobi a penalty proved immediately and devastatingly decisive, as Albion broke away to win an all-important spot kick of their own.

THE HERO

Jose Enrique rose above the chaos with a classic full- back’s display to edge out two-goal Andy Carroll for the title of United’s star man.

THE VILLAIN

Take your pick between messrs Linington and Street on a day when the match- winners wore blue rather than blue and white stripes.

THE VERDICT

Newcastle’s sense of injustice is fully warranted – but their anger must dissipate quickly if a controversial cup exit is not to damage their bigger ambitions.